From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 04/25
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.033052.15758@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 91 03:30:52 GMT
Sender: news@watmath.waterloo.edu (News Owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 99
- Sid Vicious has left WCW. He will join the WWF in September or perhaps
even earlier. As I mentioned in weeks past, Vicious wanted his $5000
per week salary increased, but rejected the $7000 per week offer which
was tabled for him, demanding a further $1000 per week. Everyone
expects that Vicious will be given a massive push by the WWF to
build towards a Hogan-Vicious main event at WrestleMania VIII.
Things may be a little tricky, though, because Vince McMahon will
have to find Vicious a new persona (and gimmick?). WCW just recently
trademarked all the names of their wrestlers and most likely won't
let Vicious take the name with him.
With Vicious gone, the One Man Gang will fill all his spots. OMG
has little to do since Butch Reed will be working the big shows for
WCW to end his feud with Ron Simmons.
- The WWF has a "Saturday Night's Main Event" this weekend. Featured
matches will be the Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, the Nasty
Boys vs. the Sheepwhackers, and a battle royale featuring Hulk Hogan,
Curt Hennig, Jake Roberts, Earthquake, Bret Hart, and the LOD among
others.
- Here's an interesting item from a friend of mine who occasionally works as
a referee for a small promotion ("the true minor league of professional
wrestling") in South Carolina. Although Dusty Rhodes is the booker for
WCW, Jody Hamilton (Nick Patrick's father) is the road agent and he
calls the shots at the arenas. While talking to Jody (who, by the way,
was the original Masked Assassin) about the possibility of working for
WCW as a part-time referee, he was told that they have a long waiting
list. Jody told him to submit a video-tape and a resume. Imagine,
you need a resume to get into pro-wrestling now!
- Results from the WWF card in Toronto on Sunday:
- Sgt. Slaughter beat Hulk Hogan by DQ, when referee Dave Hebner
incorrectly thought Hogan had used a steel chair. Hogan juiced.
- Curt Hennig no-showed and was replaced by Haku, who lost to Davey
Boy Smith. It's standard WWF policy to put the face over in the
case of a no-show. Hennig took a bad bump in a match againt Smith
the night before and needed 25 stitches in the face.
- Ted DiBiase used the ropes to pin Virgil.
- Rockers pinned Orient Express.
- Big Boss Man pinned Mountie.
- Rick Steamboat pinned Brooklyn Brawler.
- Tugboat pinned Black Demon.
- Berzerker pinned Jim Powers.
The next WWF card in Toronto is on June 2 and features the Ultimate
Warrior vs. The Undertaker, Earthquake vs. Jake Roberts, and the
Nasty Boys vs. LOD.
- Speaking of the Ultimate Warrior and The Undertaker, reports are that
the Undertaker is getting the bigger face pop from the arena crowds.
In a match last week, the Undertaker tried to put UW in a body bag
after piledriving him. When Jim Duggan and Davey Boy Smith did a
run-in, the fans booed them!
- After a little discussion with Ted Turner, who owns the rights to the
Wizard of Oz, WCW has been allowed to introduce characters based on
the film. Kevin Nash, the larger Master Blaster, will be cast as Oz,
and Kevin Sullivan will be cast as his manager, Merlin the Magician.
The debut of the characters has been added to the May 19th PPV.
Could this be anyone but Jim Herd's idea?
- New Japan wrestler and WCW Japanese World Japan (;-)) Tatsumi Fujinami
celebrates his 20th year in the sport in May. New Japan is planning
a big tour of Japan running from May 25th to July 12th, so if you've
been putting off travelling to Japan, this may be the right time frame
to plan a trip.
- This week, I saw a video of an All Japan Women's tournament from 1990.
I was left with three lasting impressions of the show:
1. The brutality of the opening match, which was a
wrestling/boxing match. I though this was just another
gimmick match, but after just a few minutes of action, it
was fairly clear that the match was a shoot. The girls
weren't green, but the moves had abolutely no slickness
because there was no cooperation.
2. The look of anguish on Akira Hokuto's face as she lay at
ringside writhing in pain after a screwed up cross-body
block from the top rope. She ended up landing with her knee
across the guard rail. The swelling was immediate and the
gash looked pretty bad. The referee wanted to stop the
match and throw the booking out the window, but Akira
wouldn't let him. She couldn't stand, but she fought with
anyone who tried to convince her to leave the ring.
Eventually, she forfeited.
3. The cross-body block from the top rope *over* the guard
rail onto her opponent that one of the girls did.
This was some of the best stuff I've seen in a while.
- Jesse Ventura's film "Abraxas" was released to video stores earlier this
week. Jesse plays a law enforcement cop in the future.
Herb...
As always, comments, criticisms, and questions are encouraged and appreciated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herb Kunze : "Whether you like it or you don't like it,
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hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu : Woooooooh!"
hekunze@violet.waterloo.edu : - Ric 'Nature Boy' Flair